Last year 222 adoption requests were made to four adoption agencies working in Luxembourg. Of that number, 169 requests concerned children born abroad in countries including Bulgaria, Cap-Vert, South Korea, Columbia, Nepal and Haiti.

The figures were revealed by Families Minister Marie-Josée Jacobs responding to a parliamentary question. In her reply, the minister highlighted that Luxembourg's case shows that the number of adoption requests made in recent years generally exceeds the number of children able to be internationally adopted.

This may have more to do with the specific demands of adoptive parents in Luxembourg, which show the majority of successful adoptions involved babies aged four years old or younger. The minister said that foreign countries are actively seeking families to adopt what they refer to as children with special needs, ie older children, children with siblings or children suffering from illness or disability.

She added that the exceptionally high number of international adoptions recorded in 2010 could be explained by the fact that 14 Haitian children were evacuated to Luxembourg en masse on January 21 following a devastating earthquake. The adoption process had already been started for the children concerned.